I’m writing for your immediate help in signing, circulating and raising $15,000 to publish the “Emergency Call! Join Us in Stopping Torture in U.S. Prisons!” as a full-page paid ad in the Los Angeles Times as soon as possible. This will give broad, crucial public support to California prisoners, now on the 18th day of their hunger strike against long-term solitary confinement and other abuses, whose health and lives hang in the balance.

The California Department of Corrections (CDCR) has “refused to negotiate or even address the strikers’ five demands,” say mediators for prisoners, and has “breached international human rights obligations by taking punitive measures against prisoners on hunger strike,” according to Amnesty International. These measures include increased isolation, harsher conditions, and at Pelican Bay reportedly blasting “cold air into their cells” and confiscating “fluids, hygiene products and legal materials.”

This is a cruel, outrageous effort to isolate and crush the hunger strike and perpetuate indefinite solitary confinement. The prisoners vow to “see our peaceful hunger strike through to victory even if this requires us to endure the torture of force-feeding.” We must support them and not allow the CDCR to prevail!

Publishing the “Emergency Call” in the Los Angeles Times can play a critical role right now. It would serve notice to the State of California that the prisoners are not alone, that thousands, including many respected voices, support them, and that refusing to grant their just demands will be widely seen as unconscionable and illegitimate.

* Circulate the above link to the Emergency Call widely, especially to individuals and organizations looked to throughout society – to sign, circulate and donate generously to its publication.

* Promote the Call’s publication on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. (This letter has been posted for spreading on social media).

I’m enclosing the full text of the Emergency Call below. Please contact me right away with questions, concerns, suggestions, etc.

Best,

*************

EMERGENCY CALL! JOIN US IN STOPPING TORTURE IN U.S. PRISONS!

Tens of thousands of people imprisoned in the US are being subjected to torturous, inhumane conditions. Many are:

• Held in long term solitary confinement; locked in tiny, windowless, sometimes sound proof, cells; cut off from fresh air and sunlight for 22-24 hours every day and given small portions of food that lack basic nutritional requirements.

• Denied human contact and violently taken from their cells for petty violations.

• Put in solitary arbitrarily, often because of accusations for being members of prison gangs based on dubious evidence, with no way to challenge the decisions of prison authorities to place them in solitary.

Many are forced to endure these conditions for months, years and even decades! Mental anguish and trauma often results from being confined under these conditions. Locking people down like this amounts to trying to strip them of their humanity.

These conditions fit the international definition of torture! This is unjust, illegitimate and profoundly immoral. WE MUST JOIN IN AN EFFORT TO STOP IT, NOW!

People imprisoned at Pelican Bay and other prisons in California launched a nationwide Hunger Strike on July 8, 2013. Prisoners at Pelican Bay also issued a call for unity among people from different racial groups, inside and outside the prisons. People who are locked down in segregation units of this society’s prisons, condemned as the “worst of the worst,” are standing up against injustice, asserting their humanity in the process. We must have the humanity to hear their call, and answer it with powerful support!

A nationwide and worldwide struggle needs to be built NOW to bring an end to this widespread torture and to support the prisoners who have put their lives on the line.

To the Government: We Demand an Immediate End to the Torture and Inhumanity of Prison House America – Immediately Disband All Torture Chambers. Meet the Demands of Those You Have Locked Down In Your Prisons!

To People in this Country and Around the World: We Cannot Accept, and We Should Not Tolerate This Torture. Join the Struggle to End Torture in Prisons Now!

To Those Standing Up in Resistance Inside The Prisons: WE SUPPORT YOUR CALL FOR UNITY IN THIS FIGHT, AND WE WILL HAVE YOUR BACKS!

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Having saijd that, I beg your pardon, because I do not subscribe to your entire idea, all be it refreshing noe the less. It looks to me that your comments are not totally rationalized and in reality you are yourself not really fully convinced of yourr point.In any cse I did take pleasure iin reading tthrough it.